Improvement in clock and watch movements



D. i. MOZART.

Clock Movement.

- No. 36,103. Patented Aug. 5, 1862.

UNITED; STATES PATENT DON J. MOZART, OF NEXV YORK, N. 'Y.

EMPROVEMENT IN CLOCK AND WATCH MOVEMENTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 36,103, dated August 5, 1862.

To all? whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DON J. llIOZART, of the city, county, and .State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Clock and Y \Vatch Movement and Escapement; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this spccification Figure 1 being a face view of a clock constructed with my improvements; Fig. 2, a front elevation of the interior movement in place; Figs. 3 and 4, side and top views of the mainspring of the clock; Figs. 5 and 6, diagrams exhibiting, on an enlarged scale, the construction and operation of the escapement; Fig. 7, a side elevation of the balance-wheel and pivot.

Like letters designate corresponding parts in all of the figures.

The object aimed at in this invention is to produce a clock or watch which will run a whole year at each winding up without increasing the size, weight, complication, or cost of the same. I effect this object by several improvements, which I will proceed to describe.

First, in the matter of the driving power, when I employ spring power, as shown in the drawings, I avoid a considerable amount of strain and friction by the employment of a double-coiled spring, A A, or two springs connected together at a, Figs. 3 and 4, so that one serves as the means of attachment to the other, and having no connection with any fixed part of the machine, except bya pin, H, which passes through aslot, I, in the connecting part a, to keep the spring or springs from getting out ofproper place, but does not hold either spring, they draw upon each other and perfectly balance each others force; hence,

by connecting a main wheel, B, with each coil or spring A, as shown' in Fig. 2, the two forces are perfectly equalized, and when the power of each main wheel B is applied to the opposite side of the same pinion, b, the latter will turn with perfect freedom between them, the friction otherwise produced by applying all of the power on one side be ing thus avoided, and it is at this first gearing that the largest amount of friction is ordinarily produced. Therefore I effect a step I of considerable importance toward the object desired in diminishing the amount of power required. The two parts of the spring A A should coil on opposite sides, or so that their forces may act in the same direction on the wheels. If weightsare usedinstead otsprings, I cause the weight or weights to act simultaneously on two driving-wheels, and thus carry out the principle in the same manner.

The next feature of my improvements consists in the arrangement of the wheel-work of the movement, as follows: I have but one gearing or wheel and pinion for each main division of time, and by thus greatly diminishing the number of wheels and pinions and their adjuncts, I at once reduce the friction, complication, and cost to a minimum. Thus I cause the first or main driving wheel or wheels B to make one revolution only each month, so that by attaching a hand to its axis or arbor the months and their divisions into numbered days are at once indicated on a dialplate, S, of the clock-face N, substantially as represented in the drawings. This drivingwheel B then gears into the pinion b on the arbor of a toothed wheel, 0, which is to make one revolution each day; hence the relative number of teeth on the d riving-wheel B and of leaves on the pinion I) should give the number of daysin the month. I find the most convenient number to be one hundred and eighty-thrce teeth on the wheelBand sixleaves on thepiniou I), thus fixing the ratio of thirty and one-half to one, thirty and one-half being about the average number of days in the months. As the months differ in length, it is only necessary to move the hand with the fingers at the beginning of a month, when the index would otherwise be wrong, there being thirty-one days marked on the dial-plate. The axis or arbor of the pinion and wheel 0, making one revolution each day, a dial-plate, 0. may be shown on the clock-face N, exhibiting the twice twelve hours of the day, to be indicated by a hand on said arbor. This dial-plate may or may not be employed. The toothed wheel 0 gears into a pinion, 0, so as to make the arbor of the latter revolve once each hour. A proper number of teeth on the wheel 0 is two hundred and forty, and on the pinion c is ten leaves, thus multiplying the motion twenty four times, as required; hence, a hand attached to the arbor of the pinion 0 makes one revolution each hour, and exhibits its divisions in minutes on an ordinary dial-plate, P, of the face. The usual hour-hand also may be added, as well as on the index 0 of the hour dial-plate. This is done in the usual manner by an extra toothed wheel on the arbor of the wheel 0 and aloose pinion on the arbor of the pinion 0. Then the toothed wheel D on the arbor of the pinion 0 gears into a pinion, d, on the arbor of the scapewheel E, so as to cause the latter to make one revolution each minute; and since the mo tion must here be multiplied sixty times at one gearing, I find it most convenient to have three hundred and sixty teeth on the wheel D and six leaves on the pinion d, thus producingthe desired multiplication of the motion. The scape-wheel E has one hundred and twenty teeth, 6 e, which escape each half second by the pallets of the balance-wheel G, t

which consequently vibrates each quarter of a second. Therefore, a hand on the arbor of the scape-wheel will exhibit quarter-seconds on adial-platc, Q. The week not being a main division of time in horology, the days of the week need not be shown; but since I employ two main driving-wheels, B B, I conveniently exhibit the days of the week by a separate device situated on the axis of the wheel not otherwise occupied, as shown at the right hand in Fig. 2. Upon the axis of this wheel is centered a loose revolving plate, M, having seven teeth,Z l, as represented, and on the hub thereof also seven rounded teeth, m, against which a very slight spring, It, bears. An arm. L, is attached tothe arbor of the pinion b, which makes one revolution a day. The arm is of the proper length to reach the teeth Z Z, and is so situated on its arbor as to come around to the disk M at midnight. As it passes by the same at that time, it strikes one of the teeth H and turns the disk one-seventh ofa revolution, the spring 70 holding the disk in place during the whole time between the successive actions of the arm L. A spindle projects forward from the disk M, through the clock-face N, and a hand thereon. tells the day of the week on a dialplate, R.

The third feature of my invention consists in an improved escapement, whereby ascapewheel of the large number of one hundred and twenty teeth, or an unlimited number, may be employed, and those of the simplest construction, obviating, also, a further multiplication of gearing, and by which a less movement of the scape-wheel is required, and the friction is lessened. The teeth e e of the scape-wheel E are simple projections turned at right angles from the ends of the radial shanks or teeth proper, and are readily made. These projections are quite slender, and being employed in connection with lunar-shaped pallets h i, theinner circumference or concave of the latter may be very small, just sufficient to allow the teeth to enter freely therein, thereby reducing the diameter of the palletring, and consequently the extent of motion required at each escape of the teeth of the scape-wheel and the friction thereof on the pallets. The verge g of the balance G is cut or bent away where the pallets h i are attached thereto, so that the center point of the pallets motion maybe exactly in thelineofthe center, or in the axial line of the verge g,- and the centers of the teeth projections of the scape-wheel pass through this central point when passing the pallets. The first pallet, h, projects only about one-half as far from the verge as does the second pallet, t, and the extent of its motion while the teeth ofthe scape-wheel are bearing on it, as seen in Fig. 5, is only one-half as great as that of the second pallet, i, in the same condition, as shown in Fig. 6. By this improvement the extent of frictional contact is lessened on the pallet h, while that on the pallet i is relatively increased; but since the scape-wheel teeth bear on the outer circumference of the pallet h and on theinner circumference of the pallet 75, the actual frictional surface is nearly the same on both; and since by this construction the circumference of both is greatly reduced, the objects desired are perfectly gained.

A pendulum may be substituted for the balance G in stationary clocks with a similar cscapement.

WVhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The construction and arrangement of the mainspring A, with two springs or coils, each furnishing the only fixed attachment for the other,in combination with two driving-wheels, B B, acting on opposite sides of a common pinion, b, substantially as and for the purpose herein specified.

- 2. In combination with the above, the combined arrangement of the successive wheels and pinions B, b, O, c, and D d, so that the respective pairs shall directly produce the main divisions of time, in connection with suitable dial-plates, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

3. In combination with the subject-matter of the first clause of the claim, the construction and arrangement of the escapement, substantially as and forthe purposesherein specified.

The above specification of my improved clock and watch movement and escapement signed by me this 23d day of May, 1862.

DOS J. MOZART.

WVitnesses:

J. S. BROWN, EDM. F. BROWN. 

